Nearfields for audiophile listening?

I'm going to set my sights on good nearfields next year.

I had the JBL LSR305s for several months and they were pretty good.

I currently have Presonus Eris E4.5 and slightly prefer them to the LSR305 despite them being cheaper. More options for tuning and more convenient as a desktop speaker replacement (which is a requirement for any nearfields I use).

I also use a Polk Audio PSW 10 subwoofer. It's overkill for under the desk (and is actually a couple inches taller than I'd prefer), but a friend was replacing it so I snagged it from him.

Tonight, I'll start reading through this thread, but how about I ask questions like a rando who doesn't bother reading threads: What's a clear upgrade from the JBL LSR305 or Presonus that still works on my desktop?

 

The Nearfield Expansion Pack for Luckbad's Quest for Bass. Coming to you 2018!

 

His poor wallet never stood a chance

 

Gotta say, Quested email support is f'ing horrible. Out of 4 emails only one was answered...

And it's not like i'm pestering them with inane questions. Just one question...

 

Firstly apologies for the delay on following up on my experiences with dampening the vibrations from the LSR305s, it has been a combination of being unwell and being busy. My descriptions will be brief.

@Garns very kindly sent me some sorbothane hemispheres (thanks Garns!) to compare to the Adam Hall pads and the generic pads I purchased from ebay. For the formal comparison I used the track "Needed Me" by Rihanna, I chose this track because it has a good amount of bass.

Direct on table: Lots of bass is transmitted to the table (as one would expect). The sound is very bloated with the bass overpowering the other frequencies.

Adam Hall pads: For the comparison, I used these in a flat configuration. This is a big improvement. Much less bass is transmitted to the table, but still a small amount. The strongest vibrations are in the centre front of the table rather than directly in front of a speaker. I guess this is where the vibrations from each speaker meet and reinforce. Anyway, the sound is much clearer and lighter. The bloated sound is gone and the frequency range is much better balanced.

Sorbothane hemispheres: I really struggle to hear much difference between the hemispheres and the Adam Hall pads. They are both very good. Maybe the hemispheres are slightly leaner? But this could well be placebo.

Ebay pads: The ebay pads are much deeper than the Adam Hall pads and constructed with a much denser foam. I had high hopes for these but they are noticeably inferior to the Adam Hall pads. They are an obvious improvement over using nothing but not as effective as the Adam Halls.

I would rank the solutions something like this (give or take the odd chevron - it is not easy to quantify):

Sorbothane >= Adam Hall >>>> Ebay >> Direct

The configuration I am using for listening is: Sorbothane hemispheres on bottom (round-side up, sandwiched between two pieces of black backing card), ebay pads above the hemispheres, Adam Hall pads on top (shallow angle) and then the speakers. This places the tweeters pointing at my ears

Many thanks for all your suggestions

 

Sorbothane is great for reducing vibrations, but be aware if set on wood it will leave a mark in the shape of the disk that will be permanent. Happened to a dresser I had some bookshelves on. Best bet is to put foil or cardboard between surfaces.

Also if you really want to deal with the speaker desk boundary on response you really need to get the speakers up more than a few inches and tweeters at ear level. I use small cinder blocks, dirt cheap and effective.

Enjoy!

 

I've been looking into a pair of nearfield monitors for desktop use as well Luckbad. At first i was leaning towards the JBL LSR308 but now i'm about ready to pull the trigger on a pair of PreSonus Eris E8's....sweetwater has them right now for $375/pair which is pretty good...the last time i checked prices a few weeks ago they were still at $249 each. If i end up ordering a pair, once ai get familiar with them i will let you know what i think. Will be running them from E22 > Gungnir Multibit > Freya

 

Nice, would be interested in thoughts. My current thought is that since I really do like the Eris E4.5, I might step up to something higher in the PreSonus range (e.g. Sceptre or R65). I don't actually need louder, I'll just be looking for better at some point next year, so I will likely stick to something below 8".

 

Yes, I have the sorbothane hemispheres between two pieces of card

The bottom of speakers are about 13cm above the table. I will try increasing the angle on the Adam Hall pads.

 

@mrflibble, did the various blobby/sticky/thicky things you tried eliminate (if that's even possible without expensive isolation tables) the physical vibration. As in, if you are sitting at a keyboard, could you still feel it in your arms?

Not that I do much speaker listening these days... but it used to occur to me that, if it is shaking the table, the table is shaking the air...

 

None of the solutions eliminated the bass vibrations through the table entirely. But the sorbothane hemispheres and the Adam Hall pads when used separately *greatly* reduce the vibrations. Even when combined I don't think they eliminate them entirely, but I can check tomorrow.

For the test, I had the HF and LF trim both set to 0dB. I have them both at -2dB at the moment. I would imagine having the LF trim at -2dB would help slightly with the vibrations.

I am happy with the performance of the sorbothane and the pads, they both do a good job. I have not tried pumice blocks.

 

When using all three solutions in combination and with LF trim (and HF trim) set to -2dB, vibrations are still palpable with bare hands and fingers but almost non-existent with arms covered with a sweatshirt sleeves.

 

If it's at all possible try looking into stands, mass load them and don't worry about your speakers being up against any wall. Your desk is hurting your low frequency response due to it's low mass. If you don't have room maybe a different more solid desk might help, would probably have to be something custom/diy though.

 

Thanks for the suggestions But I'm happy with my current setup for the time being. The desk is actually a well constructed table. Perhaps I will look into mass loading at a later date.

 

Although I wanted to look into the Genelec 8260, I concluded that I didn't want to spend that much money right now and risk to ruin the Gumbys Mulitibit sound by adding another A/D conversion. I also own Dirac Live already, so no need for Genelec's GLM.

So I got Genelec 8050 in November and I am very happy with them. My Focal Utopias collect dust now...

I've been to three stores four times and got the LSR 305 before out of curiosity. They are now at my office desk.

What I found most interesting on my search for new speakers:

• LSR 305 sounded completely different in the bass department at home and in one store (nothing new, just reiterating)
• Genelec 8040 were the only speaker that completely convinced me in two different rooms
  • I had one or more gripes with every other speaker I listened to
• a smaller Genelec speaker sounded very similar to the 8040s
• so I concluded that the Genelec sound fits best to my ears and this would be the case at my home too

I am writing this because some people say that that if you listen to speakers in other rooms one would never know how they would sound at home. I think this is only partially true. When comparing speakers in other rooms one can get familiar with the chracteristics of the different brands and models and thus find out which brand or model suits best.

And then you add room acoustics

 

For those trying to solve bass problems/boundary interactions with a desk, the Iso-Acoustics ISOL8R-155 is worth every penny. I use a pair with my XTZ 99.26MkII monitors and it makes a massive difference:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ISOL8R155

 

The duro of the sorbothane is very important...Duro 70 is better to damp the speakers but you must compress it a bit, without a load on top of the speakers, it will not be enough weigh to compress it with only the mass of the speakers that seems very light...Try duro 70 with some load around 20 pounds on top of the speakers...And for me the better solution was a sandwich of sorbothane+a bamboo plate with cork in between and 2 granite plates with sorbothane in between + 4 pieces of quartz under all that...All my gear are on my desk in nearfield listening, it is very important to isolate all and each one of them from the others with this sandwich under each one....Also isolating the big transfo of my amp from the dac give me better clarity....If you go on the net and watch photos of people's audio installation, even pro reviewer, the fact that their gear was insufficiently isolate, and damped was surprising... And I will not speak here about cleaning the electrical grid where the audio system is embedded, which is imperative, that was the greatest upgrade I have enjoy , way bigger than the change of an amplifier or a dac....Because no audio product, whatever the price, sound at his potential optimum right out of the box, without any modifications (room treatment,damping,isolating,cleaning methods)...It is the only thing that I had learn in my audio journey... Happy new year to all

 

If you know what listen for and what changes between rooms, then yes. Above Schroeder frequency (usually 120 - 200Hz) all you need to look out for are reflective qualities of the room. Below Schroeder it's all about geometry and placement.

P.S. Happy that you found your speakers. Those 8050ies do go low, right?

 

Does using speakers in a nearfield setup eliminate some of the performance differences of the speakers versus positioning them in a normal speaker setup where the speakers are much further apart?

I ask this as I am auditioning the Sierra Lunas, LSR 30X, KEF Q100, and KEF LS50. The Lunas and LSR 30X sound the best to me but they also sound performance wise quite similar to each other in a lot of aspects to me. I guess what I'm asking is if I were to put them in a 2.0 setup much farther apart would that allow the Sierra Luna's to possibly sound much better than the LSR 30X cause for now the differences to me between the speakers are too minute for me to appreciate the massive cost difference of the Lunas compared to the LSR 30X.

 

I think, to be fair to the speakers, that the performance difference is that of the room, rather than the speakers.

With nearfield, you eliminate some of the room effects, but then there are others introduced, such as by the table top between you and them. And they may still be affected by proximity to the wall behind them. Active monitors are likely to include controls to compensate for some of these environmental effects. That is part and parcel of the pro world, but maybe [was] fairly strange to the home market. I wish I had had such speakers in my better-hearing days! A good pair of studio monitors was one of my aspirations even up to a couple of years ago.